Photo: Willsome429 · CC BY-SA 4.0Gardner has 1,221 acres of parks, 927 for every 1,000 residents
0.1 miles of mapped trail cross Gardner. 18% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 5% of Gardner’s land is conserved, about 1,165 acres.
Ahead of 45% of U.S. towns. What drives it
What kind of outdoors town is Gardner?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
How much outdoors does Gardner have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Gardner is ahead of 45% of U.S. towns. Park acres per resident hold the grade up; trail miles pull it down.
Water is more than half of Gardner’s area (78 of 113 square miles), so every share here is of land; over land and water together, the conserved share would read 2%.
PAD-US, OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors), Census 2025 Gazetteer and 2020 blocks; details in Sources below. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →
Conserved land, trails & bike routes
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.
Pick a walk
Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.
Claflin County Park
1,165 conserved acres
5% of Gardner’s land. Water is left out: Gardner has 34.3 square miles of land and 78.4 of water, so the share counts land only. Who manages Gardner’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gardner Swamp Wildlife Area State Recreation Area | State natural resources | 1,154 | Open |
| Statewide Public Access - Lm State Recreation Area | State natural resources | 8 | Open |
| Statewide Public Access State Recreation Area | State natural resources | 8 | Open |
3 places to go in Gardner
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
3 boat launches without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see them.
0.0 miles of bike routes
Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.
1 place on the National Register
The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service). The map also marks 1 historic points from OpenStreetMap: plaques, memorials and old buildings.
The best walking months in Gardner: May, August and September
NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals for the town and the daylight at its latitude. Outlined months have long days, highs of 59 to 86 °F and little rain for the place.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 9.1 | 10.4 | 11.8 | 13.4 | 14.8 | 15.6 | 15.3 | 14.0 | 12.5 | 10.9 | 9.5 | 8.8 |
| High (°F) | 26 | 29 | 39 | 50 | 62 | 72 | 77 | 76 | 69 | 56 | 43 | 31 |
| Rain (in) | 1.6 | 1.2 | 1.8 | 3.0 | 3.4 | 3.8 | 3.6 | 3.3 | 3.3 | 3.1 | 2.2 | 1.9 |
February is the driest month (1.2 in) and July the warmest (highs of 77 °F). 3.8 inches fall in June, the wettest month. The climate in Gardner →
Gardner and its neighbors
Tap a town to see its outdoors.
| Town | Conserved of land | Trail mi per sq mi | Park acres per 1,000 | Near a park ½ mile | Outdoors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gardner | 5% | under 0.1 | 927 | 18% | C+ |
| Nasewaupee | 4% | 0.4 | 725 | 26% | B |
| Peshtigo | 18% | 0.3 | 1,525 | 32% | A− |
| Brussels | under 1% | 0.1 | 5 | 1% | D |
| Egg Harbor | under 1% | 0.5 | 27 | 6% | C |
The four inputs of the Outdoors grade, from the engine; shares are of land, not water.
Questions about parks and trails in Gardner
How much of Gardner is conserved land?
5% of its land, against a typical 4% for a Wisconsin town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Are dogs allowed on Gardner’s trails?
Sugar Creek County Park and Tornado Memorial County Park don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.
Is there public land near Gardner?
3,703 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Gardner or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 1,221 of them inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Gardner have?
Ahead of 45% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade. The grade combines the share of land that is conserved, miles of mapped trail per square mile of land, park acres per 1,000 residents and the share of residents within a half mile of a park. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
Trail talk
Conditions, parking and favorite walks from Gardner neighbors.
Where this page comes from
Conserved and public land: USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US), service updated July 2026. Parks, trails, playgrounds, beaches and other places: OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), map data as of 2026-10-28. Land and water area: Census 2025 Gazetteer. Residents near a park: 2020 Census blocks. National Register: National Park Service. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →